[HN Gopher] Only Teslas Exempt from New Auto Tariffs Thanks to 8...
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       Only Teslas Exempt from New Auto Tariffs Thanks to 85% Domestic
       Content Rule
        
       Author : abduhl
       Score  : 140 points
       Date   : 2025-04-29 20:59 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (fuelarc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (fuelarc.com)
        
       | JohnFen wrote:
       | What a surprise.
        
       | rectang wrote:
       | I have zero faith in "free market" ideologues, because what we
       | actually get when they gain power is just favoritism for "free
       | market" ideologues.
        
         | aswanson wrote:
         | Same. This era has exposed them as the shameless hypocrites
         | they are.
        
           | resters wrote:
           | There is not and has never been any trace of free speech or
           | free market "ideology" from Trump. Perhaps as a talking point
           | but never in any policy or action. Trump is the anti-
           | libertarian, severely authoritarian and moving things toward
           | a centrally planned economy!
        
         | intermerda wrote:
         | You can extend the "free market ideologues" to include more
         | groups such as those who were very concerned about free speech
         | for exactly four years from 2021-2024. Same people were
         | concerned about politicization of justice department, but only
         | when certain Presidents are in office. Same goes for "respect
         | for constitution". "Family values" was abandoned quite a while
         | ago.
         | 
         | Wilhoit's Law has never been truer.
        
           | sidibe wrote:
           | Can't forget being "for the rule of law".
        
         | legitster wrote:
         | Trump was never actually a "free market" idealogue. And the GOP
         | officially dropped any mentions of it from their party platform
         | a few years ago.
         | 
         | If anything, they are doing exactly what they promised. They
         | were against globalism and elites and international agreements
         | and governance and they are being true to their words.
        
           | fullshark wrote:
           | The "libertarians" who are in bed with Trump however...
        
           | ryandrake wrote:
           | If I was forced to say one good thing about the guy, it's
           | that he is quickly and faithfully delivering on his campaign
           | promises, moreso than any other president that ever served in
           | my lifetime. He's blasting right through the Project 2025
           | checklist and doing exactly what he said he'd do. Those
           | campaign promises are destructive, thoughtless, cruel, and
           | self-serving, but he said he'd do them, was elected, and then
           | subsequently did them. So, I'll give him that.
        
             | cosmicgadget wrote:
             | While I agree with the sentiment that he is not backing
             | down from a lot of his batshit promises, let's not forget
             | that he made a lot of promises. The Russian invasion didn't
             | end on day 1 or day 100 and he decided to only strongarm
             | one side - iirc he said he would threaten Ukraine with
             | withdrawing support and threaten Russia with giving obscene
             | amounts of support to Ukraine.
        
           | tchock23 wrote:
           | Like launching a private $500k membership club for elites:
           | 
           | https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/donald-trump-
           | jr-m...
           | 
           | True to their word!
        
         | nostromo wrote:
         | Trump is in no way a free market ideologue and has made that
         | very clear. Or are you talking about Elon?
        
           | rectang wrote:
           | The Trump administration and his circle of economic policy
           | makers, and Musk in particular for his DOGE work which has
           | included firing regulatory enforcers.
        
         | creddit wrote:
         | Trump has literally been prattling about his love of tariffs
         | for decades and was explicit about his plans to heavily
         | leverage tariffs during his campaign..
         | 
         | I think you might just want an excuse to believe what you
         | already believe
        
         | tim333 wrote:
         | It's hard to label Trump a free market ideologue. He's more Mr
         | tarrif man.
         | 
         | If you want free markets look more to Lee Kuan Yew and
         | Singapore (#1 on the "Index of Economic Freedom").
        
       | joshdavham wrote:
       | This is crony capitalism.
        
         | throwaway48476 wrote:
         | It is but it always has been. I would also appreciate if the
         | big 3 American car companies had 85% American content.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _would also appreciate if the big 3 American car companies
           | had 85% American content_
           | 
           | Versus 80%? Those five percentage points are worth a double-
           | digit tariff.
        
             | throwaway48476 wrote:
             | 5 percentage points should be easy enough for them to
             | change then by moving a few supply chains.
        
               | kasey_junk wrote:
               | So make it 90% and don't give Tesla the special
               | treatment.
        
               | moralestapia wrote:
               | Then the exact discussion will come up with a different
               | number.
               | 
               | A guide to improve metacognition skills, https://cdn.serc
               | .carleton.edu/files/evaluateur/methods/metac....
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _Then the exact same discussion will come up with a
               | different number_
               | 
               | No?
               | 
               | The point is there is no reason for the number 85 other
               | than benefiting Tesla. The metacognitive question should
               | be how one should estimate that variable in a way which
               | balances disruption with incentivising the desired
               | outcome.
        
               | moralestapia wrote:
               | Explain how the number 90 would be different than the
               | number 85?
               | 
               | Provide source for any claims you make.
        
               | jrflowers wrote:
               | Your answer to the question "Is the 5% between 80 and 85%
               | worth a double-digit tariff?" here is "Yes. A double
               | digit tariff on a car that is 80% made in America makes
               | sense."
               | 
               | Right?
        
             | metalman wrote:
             | and then there is the other side of the 14.9% coin, which
             | will be fought over by Canada(read ontario), Mexico, China,
             | and the rest when it comes parts and cars made in Canada
             | and Mexico, that is going to be tricky, as both countrys
             | have historicaly bought a lot of US cars and other stuff,
             | but will now be in no possition to also play along with the
             | anti china stance in the US and tarrifs, and all the other
             | issues at the borders.......geoplotical has more meaning
             | now.
        
         | qwerpy wrote:
         | What should we call it when the other side does things in the
         | opposite direction? https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-
         | news/politics/wa-legisl...
         | 
         | Punitive legislation? Lawfare? Crony capitalism but for the
         | other companies?
        
       | mystraline wrote:
       | Used cars are ALSO exempt.
       | 
       | And, all used goods bought at secondhand stores are tariff-exempt
       | as well. And so is FB marketplace, Craigslist, and others.
       | 
       | My protest is meager, but effective for us - we just will buy
       | used and use 'Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle' where we can.
       | EnEnough of us doing that will slow and hamper the economy (read:
       | rich peoples' money).
        
         | userbinator wrote:
         | That suggests an ecosystem may appear around making new goods
         | "used" enough to meet some legal definition.
        
           | coaksford wrote:
           | I think the meaning was not "You can import used cars without
           | tariffs", but "If you buy used cars already in the country,
           | you don't pay the new tariff, so just don't buy new cars."
        
           | rtkwe wrote:
           | If you're importing it it doesn't matter it's condition other
           | than it's worth less so the tariff would be less. What they
           | mean is if you buy goods that are already here there's no
           | tariff, but they will also go up in price too as the new item
           | goes up.
        
           | seanmcdirmid wrote:
           | Isn't that actually what they've been doing in Cuba since the
           | revolution? I'm sure those old cars should have been retired
           | by now and replaced with cheap Chinese imports, but for a few
           | decades, they were refurbishing American-made cars
           | continuously.
        
         | toast0 wrote:
         | Are you saying if I import a used car, I don't have to pay
         | tariffs? Factory delivery programs would become a lot more
         | popular.
         | 
         | Or are you just saying that if I buy a car that's already in
         | the US and has already had any import tariffs due at time of
         | import paid, I won't have to pay them again? That's a lot less
         | interesting.
        
           | Aloisius wrote:
           | Yes. Volvo has had a program for decades where they fly you
           | to Sweden where drive a vehicle around long enough for it to
           | be "used", buy it then they ship it over to the US to avoid
           | US new car import tariffs.
        
             | bushido wrote:
             | Very surprised to learn that this is real
             | https://www.volvocars.com/us/l/osd-tourist/
             | 
             | Pretty cool. Lots more info on reddit threads.
        
               | yareally wrote:
               | Audi, BMW and Mercedes did this as well until a few years
               | ago.
               | 
               | https://www.capitalone.com/cars/learn/finding-the-right-
               | car/...
        
           | TimTheTinker wrote:
           | Yes - my question exactly.
           | 
           | I was strongly considering importing a 25-year-old kei truck
           | from Japan before the tariffs were announced.
        
             | toast0 wrote:
             | Seems to me that it's probably worth the incremental cost
             | to buy one that's already here and registered in your
             | state; there's a lot of unknowns in customs and vehicle
             | licensing, and I'd rather not deal with it. But I spent my
             | weird car slot on a 1981 Vanagon instead of a kei
             | truck/van.
        
         | jmyeet wrote:
         | Used cars respond to market forces too.
         | 
         | If new cars become much more expensive, used cars will become
         | much more expensive. This isn't even a theoretical idea. The
         | exact thing happend in 2020-2021 when you couldn't buy a new
         | car.
         | 
         | This is what many don't understand about tariffs in general:
         | you put tariffs on foreign goods and anything exempt will
         | simply raise their prices to match.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | If it walks like a coup and quacks like a coup ...
        
         | gjsman-1000 wrote:
         | Nonsense. Does anyone seriously think the military is going to
         | defy SCOTUS at the end of the four years? Does anyone seriously
         | think Jan 6th, bad as it was, was going to end the republic[0]?
         | Such hyperbole is dangerous at best when people take it
         | seriously.
         | 
         | [0] Especially because what it tells our enemies. Iran, take
         | out just this one specific building, and America is done for!
        
           | Spooky23 wrote:
           | What did the military do on Jan 6? They stood back and did
           | nothing.
           | 
           | That wasn't an actual coup because some Capitol Police had
           | the balls to do their job and Vice President Pence is a
           | patriot.
           | 
           | I'm sure the next time around anyone "untrustworthy" in the
           | police force will have been removed, and the national Guard
           | in surrounding states will have routine training in Alaska.
        
             | gjsman-1000 wrote:
             | > They stood back and did nothing
             | 
             | There's no reason to have a full allergic reaction to a
             | mosquito bite.
        
               | cogman10 wrote:
               | The mob was literally minutes away from congressional
               | people. They further kept those same congresspeople
               | surrounded and locked up for hours until Trump called
               | them off.
               | 
               | Ashley Babbitt died because she broken through the last
               | barrier between the mob and congress. Had this mob been
               | armed (and there were plans of being armed that were
               | ultimately scuttled), it could have been a blood bath.
               | There was only a handful of LEO between the mob and
               | congress.
               | 
               | This wasn't a "mosquito bite".
               | 
               | Now, what would have changed if the mob had their way
               | with congress or the supreme court? Who knows. For the
               | SC, it'd have given trump the ability to put in more yes
               | men to rubber stamp his election loss narrative.
               | 
               | For congress, the plan was literally to have
               | congressional collaborators challenge the validity of the
               | election (which still happened) to take power. If many
               | democrat reps lost their life, then yes, congress could
               | have rubberstamped a trump victory. Very few republicans
               | stood up to trump or his plans.
               | 
               | "What could they have done", the answer is kill a bunch
               | of congress people in the opposing party to empower their
               | party.
               | 
               | This was a big deal.
        
               | gjsman-1000 wrote:
               | You're exaggerating to try to make a point, but I'm not
               | convinced.
               | 
               | You're saying that it could have been much worse _if_ the
               | mob had gotten into Congress, followed by _if_ the mob
               | had offed Democrats, followed by _if_ the Republicans
               | then rubber stamped it and didn 't have their own
               | objections, followed by _if_ the Supreme Court was also
               | killed or _if_ the Supreme Court chose to take no action
               | _and if_ the states involved like California also decided
               | to go along with everything _and if_ the military
               | leadership also had no objections _assuming of course_
               | that no republicans or Trump himself died at any point
               | through the process.
               | 
               | That's so implausible to chain it all together, I might
               | as well make a similar case for a group of guys with
               | bombs in their cars.
        
           | intermerda wrote:
           | Oh I thought the military takes orders from the Command-in-
           | Chief. Silly me. Maybe Alito and Thomas can tell the Joint
           | Chiefs to provide protection to the Proud Boys to storm the
           | Capitol in 2028.
        
             | gjsman-1000 wrote:
             | > takes orders from the Command-in-Chief
             | 
             | They do, but Congress and the Supreme Court selected by
             | Congress together define who this figure is. There is no
             | sign that the military was prepared to defy either.
        
           | MildlySerious wrote:
           | > Such hyperbole is dangerous at best when people take it
           | seriously.
           | 
           | The same is true about the sitting president and some of his
           | staunch supporters repeatedly "joking" about, and alluding to
           | a third term[1][2][3][4] - including merch[5].
           | 
           | [1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-
           | third-te...
           | 
           | [2] https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5104133-rep-andy-
           | ogles-pr...
           | 
           | [3] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-
           | jokes-ru...
           | 
           | [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9-ft4BvHTE
           | 
           | [5] https://citizen-
           | times.com/story/news/local/2025/04/29/trump-...
        
           | carpo wrote:
           | It's not one event that destroys a republic, but a series of
           | little ones that slowly erode the norms, until all of sudden
           | there's someone willing to cross the Rubicon. You've got 44
           | months of erosion to go.
        
           | tomrod wrote:
           | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JN1oBfg0fwI
           | 
           | The danger is here. Due process is being denied, inch by
           | inch.
        
       | Spooky23 wrote:
       | Now they need a special insurance subsidy to offset the extra
       | costs for losses.
        
       | readthenotes1 wrote:
       | Most positive take:
       | 
       | Someone asked what is the car model with the most American parts
       | right now? We will make everyone meet that benchmark or better.
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | The CEO of Ford is very critical of Trump.
       | 
       | But Ford can probably get the USA content for gas-powered
       | Mustangs up from 80% to 85%. The electric version is made in
       | Mexico, but once Ford's Blue Oval City plant in Tennessee comes
       | up in 2027, that will move to the US.
       | 
       | Of course, who knows where Trump will be by then.
        
         | bix6 wrote:
         | How long do you think that 5% will take them?
        
       | plaurens wrote:
       | Curious about Rivian...
        
       | cjbenedikt wrote:
       | Won't safe his Chinese sales though
        
         | wahern wrote:
         | Tesla builds Model 3s and Ys in their Shanghai factory using
         | almost entirely domestically sourced components, and even
         | exports a fair number from there. But perhaps the trade war
         | will reduce demand.
        
       | Brian_K_White wrote:
       | I am kind of surprised that the collection of people at the tops
       | of all the big companies commanding so many billions, don't have
       | some sort of behind the scenes levers they can pull to make him
       | squeal like a pig, elected office or no.
       | 
       | I can only assume they're all actually largely ok with it.
       | 
       | I would not have imagined that they just never thought about
       | things like that in general and now have actually no idea what to
       | do now that this kind of situation has happened. _I_ have no
       | previously considered reactions or plans for most things and life
       | just smacks me in the face like I 've been walking with my eyes
       | closed, but _I 'm_ a hapless midwit.
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | Why aren't you assuming the opposite -- that these mythical
         | levers don't actually exist?
        
         | noduerme wrote:
         | Most people feel like hapless midwits, and we know that most of
         | us actually are. Yet we have this tendency to assume, for some
         | weird reason, that people in important positions have their
         | shit together more than we do. Only in emergencies and times of
         | crisis do we see that _no one_ has their shit together. When we
         | see that, we want to blame it on conspiracy or some sort of
         | 5-dimensional chess being played, because it goes against the
         | safe notion that someone, somewhere, is steering the boat (even
         | if we don 't like where they're taking us). But the safer bet
         | is that no one is steering, and no one actually can steer, and
         | that it's incompetence all the way to to the top.
        
         | SimianSci wrote:
         | There seems to be a (largely American) misconception that
         | people in positions of power are there because they earned such
         | a position through being capable and competent.
         | 
         | Most people in power lack critical thinking skills, having
         | earned their position primarily due to the circumstances of
         | their birth and the people they know.
         | 
         | It is incredibly rare for someone who is competent enough to
         | weild such levers of power to be granted access to them.
        
         | creddit wrote:
         | > I am kind of surprised that the collection of people at the
         | tops of all the big companies commanding so many billions,
         | don't have some sort of behind the scenes levers they can pull
         | to make him squeal like a pig, elected office or no.
         | 
         | The "US is an oligarchy, the corporations are in control" was
         | always a false narrative.
        
         | woah wrote:
         | You're so wedded to your overly simplistic and conspiratorial
         | worldview that everything is a secret plan by "the elites",
         | that now you've had to invent a new conspiracy about how they
         | all had a secret plan to lose themselves billions of dollars.
         | 
         | Sometimes a stupid guy gets elected by low-information voters,
         | and enacts stupid policies that crash the economy. There isn't
         | any secret illuminati meeting where they can tell him to stop.
        
       | gehwartzen wrote:
       | How is the unit for domestic component content defined? Is a
       | screw a component in the same way a windshield is? Is it by
       | weight? By cost?
        
         | leptons wrote:
         | Yes.
        
         | alwa wrote:
         | It appears that the American Automobile Labeling Act measures
         | domestic content on a value basis (that is, the amount the
         | manufacturer pays the supplier for it):
         | 
         | https://www.nhtsa.gov/part-583-american-automobile-labeling-...
        
       | bix6 wrote:
       | It's funny cybertruck doesn't make the cut, unfortunately nobody
       | buys those so it's irrelevant.
        
         | marcusb wrote:
         | I see them quite frequently where I live, usually covered in a
         | vinyl wrap advertising some local business or other.
        
           | unsnap_biceps wrote:
           | There appears to be someone in my local city that is using
           | their cybertruck as a billboard. They drive around during
           | rush hours and every week or so they switch the wrap to a
           | different company. I wonder if it's being widely done
           | elsewhere.
        
             | cwmoore wrote:
             | I saw a plain white one that could represent a drywall
             | business.
        
               | marcusb wrote:
               | My wife says the wrapped ones of any color look better
               | than stock. She thinks the stock ones look like toasters,
               | and that Tesla should have painted two red/orange stripes
               | along the tonneau cover to complete the stock look.
        
             | marcusb wrote:
             | I haven't seen anything like that where I live. I see the
             | same businesses over and over, and often see them parked at
             | or near the business in question.
        
           | assimpleaspossi wrote:
           | In St Louis, I see them everywhere, too. Not as advertising
           | but just driving around town.
           | 
           | There's a mall that closed and, for a while, there were
           | hundreds parked in that lot waiting to be sold (and they
           | were).
        
       | socalgal2 wrote:
       | I don't know if it's the same people but many of the comments
       | here seem the opposite of the comments on EUs rules where people
       | say they're targeting specific companies and comments say "no,
       | the rules are such than all companies over a certain size are
       | covered".
       | 
       | If the rule is 85% domestic than any company can do it.
       | 
       | I'm not saying the tariffs are good. Only that their point is to
       | get things made domesticly
        
         | tedunangst wrote:
         | It's different when I like the rules.
        
           | qwerpy wrote:
           | Washington state is going in the other direction:
           | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wa-
           | legisl...
           | 
           | I'm sure the targeted aspect of that one is applauded by the
           | same side that is unhappy about this tariff.
           | 
           | At least in the tariff case, it's an objective numerical
           | target and probably even achievable by other manufacturers.
           | Ford is only 5% away from the target for some of its models.
        
         | KerrAvon wrote:
         | >If the rule is 85% domestic than any company can do it.
         | 
         | To be making this claim, you must be an vehicle supply chain
         | expert, so can you tell the rest of us which parts can be
         | domestically sourced in the US and which can't?
         | 
         | Also, why is the Model S is stuck at 80%?
        
         | KerrAvon wrote:
         | > Only that their point is to get things made domesticly
         | 
         | False! You need to revise your media diet if you truly believe
         | this. The point of the tariffs is that Trump's brain is stuck
         | in 1983, when he first heard someone talk about tariffs, and
         | he's surrounded himself with mentally-ill sycophants and
         | psychotically deranged nerds (derogatory) who have their own
         | reasons for wanting to tear everything down.
        
           | moralestapia wrote:
           | Source, you?
        
         | gkoberger wrote:
         | Why 85% and not 80%? It's an arbitrary cutoff that happens to
         | benefit Elon.
         | 
         | Ford will quickly get to 85%, but you can't deny this is yet
         | again a move that is touted as "pro-America" yet somehow mainly
         | benefits Musk (or Trump or someone in their orbit).
        
           | nostromo wrote:
           | Three Tesla models meet the 85% threshold and three do not.
           | 
           | If Tesla was writing these rules, surely they'd have chosen
           | the 80% threshold instead.
           | 
           | I doubt they see the Ford Mustang as being in their same
           | target market, and wouldn't be a reason to increase the
           | standard.
        
         | makeitdouble wrote:
         | When you say EU rules, I guess it's the GDPR part on having the
         | user data stay in the EU?
         | 
         | Otherwise I don't see any other rule that would ask the foreign
         | company to move most of it's workforce and production capacity.
        
         | rco8786 wrote:
         | Just a coincidence that the only company that _currently_ fits
         | the criteria is Tesla then.
         | 
         | Everyone else can start rearranging their supply chains and
         | building new factories to comply. Easy peasy right? Be up and
         | running in a few weeks, at most, right?
        
           | ajmurmann wrote:
           | With the assumption of course that tariffs won't change
           | before new factories even have come online in a less optimal
           | place. I'd be hard pressed to invest huge amounts of money
           | like that when we are on tariff policy change 80-something in
           | 100 days while I also hearing about imminent "trade deals".
        
           | seanmcdirmid wrote:
           | I think Honda already has like 75% American parts in the cars
           | they produce in Indiana. It was actually listed on the Acura
           | ILX I bought from them awhile back.
        
         | jwilber wrote:
         | The key is the "...over a certain size" solely benefiting the
         | richest man in the world, who just so happens to be heavily
         | involved (despite no election) in the very government setting
         | the policy and determining the size.
        
         | markvdb wrote:
         | > I'm not saying the tariffs are good. Only that their point is
         | to get things made domesticly
         | 
         | ...or to create massive stock market front-running
         | opportunities with plausible deniability.
         | 
         | "But, but, Hanlon's razor!". Sorry, but at this level of
         | responsibility, incompetence equals malice.
         | 
         | We fscking all have to live with the consequences. That
         | includes those of us who could not vote for an alternative.
        
         | viraptor wrote:
         | It's not just the idea in isolation though. I don't think
         | anyone would complain much if the rule was "in N mths the
         | threshold is X". Everyone could do the necessary adjustments
         | and play by the same rules. But if the rule applies
         | immediately, favours the guy who gave you millions, and impacts
         | the competition financially where they need to make me
         | investments to comply with the rules... yeah, that stinks even
         | if it looks like a generic rule.
        
         | DAGdug wrote:
         | They search space for criteria is practically limitless. They
         | have and would absolutely fish for precisely the criteria
         | benefiting Musk. This playbook has been applied well by the
         | crony capitalist class in the 3rd world, and is always a moving
         | target. Most players know that and will not chase the moving
         | target, knowing that another set of rules will emerge that will
         | create new hurdles protecting the crony capitalist. A few will,
         | and get burned.
         | 
         | There are two reasons to believe this is applicable here: 1.
         | Trump has a track record of quid pro quos (Adelson being a
         | salient example). Musk is definitely seeking his pound of flesh
         | 2. Lutnick urged people to buy Tesla (shocking and explicit
         | favoritism) The view that this is just incentivizing local
         | production is naive.
        
       | Aloisius wrote:
       | Sure it's 85% now, but what about tomorrow? Next week? Next
       | month?
       | 
       | This administration's policy decisions aren't particularly
       | stable.
        
         | Rapzid wrote:
         | I would be surprised if Ford does anything drastic with their
         | supply chain. Probably just wait this out. POTUS is going to be
         | stripped of this ridiculous tariff "power" one way or another.
         | 
         | * Bogus emergency is up for review
         | 
         | * Congress discussing stripping power
         | 
         | * Constitutionality in question
         | 
         | * Public going to to bury them in the midterms if this keeps up
        
       | asdsadasdasd123 wrote:
       | I dont understand what this article means. Tesla's aren't
       | imported so why would there be tariffs on them. The source link
       | leads nowhere.
        
         | crazygringo wrote:
         | It seems to be about a tariff rebate on imported _parts_.
        
           | frabcus wrote:
           | Right but presumably 85% of the parts aren't imported? So
           | while it is a benefit, it is a slightly bizarre one?
           | 
           | Would be nice to see a technical definition for how the %
           | imported is worked out.
        
         | Jtsummers wrote:
         | The tariffs cover parts as well as whole vehicles. The thing
         | announced here is that they'll have a rebate program if the car
         | is 85% manufactured in the US, and the rebate will be in effect
         | for 2 years. So you still pay the tariff on parts, but you get
         | some or all the money back if you meet that threshold. The idea
         | being that it gives the company two years to move their parts
         | manufacturing or sources. But the threshold is so high that
         | only Tesla gets to enjoy the rebate, not any other company.
        
       | guywithahat wrote:
       | I wonder how much their lack of union plays into this. The auto
       | factories fled Flint/Detroit due to the UAW basically an attempt
       | to limit the scope of strikes and violence from the UAW. Tesla
       | doesn't have to worry about unions (at least yet), and so they
       | have very centralized factories where an enormous amount of work
       | is done. Probably makes it easier to do everything in the US if
       | you can do it all in one building
        
         | porphyra wrote:
         | In the long run, unions can be blamed for this whole Trump
         | Presidency.
         | 
         | Biden was pressured by unions to snub Tesla at the EV summit.
         | This personally offended Elon, who then went to support Trump
         | with all sorts of tactics including buying Twitter to amplify
         | his voice.
        
           | ivape wrote:
           | Is Citizen's United the only thing that allowed one person to
           | donate $150 million? This is the obvious flaw. We would need
           | a RICO type framework to identify the basket of vectors that
           | one person/organization can use to funnel money to a
           | candidate. This is a bipartisan issue but I don't know how we
           | can surface the narrative so more people can talk about it.
        
           | lenerdenator wrote:
           | > In the long run, unions can be blamed for this whole Trump
           | Presidency.
           | 
           | Yeah, how dare they do the things that make reactionaries
           | be... reactionary.
        
       | bgwalter wrote:
       | Lutnick is a man of his word:
       | 
       | https://fortune.com/2025/03/20/howard-lutnick-pumps-tesla-st...
       | 
       | Tesla is now above that price from March again. Orangehorseshoe
       | loves Tesla!
        
       | umvi wrote:
       | I wonder if Slate (https://www.slate.auto/) will be exempt as
       | well since they tout "Made in USA"
        
       | briandear wrote:
       | Japan's trade barriers on foreign autos have been legendary.
       | 
       | https://www.americanautomakers.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/...
        
       | FrustratedMonky wrote:
       | The plan all along?
        
       | matt3210 wrote:
       | It's pretty coincidental. I can't help but wonder if the number
       | was picked for this outcome
        
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       (page generated 2025-04-29 23:00 UTC)